If monopolies generate anxiety and worry among marketers, so do duopolies. Let’s take the fabulous couple Facebook-Google as an example: despite a few new players have emerged, such as Amazon for example, currently they are still undeniably ruling the advertising market (and not only, but that is another story I will tell you about in my next posts). And a big number of marketers are quite scared, indeed.

With reference to this, eMarketer has recently reported some data derived from “The State of Digital Advertising 2018”, published not too long ago by Marin Software. We are talking about a survey dating back to last April, involving over 500 B2C advertising professional which revealed that for 70% of the interviewees the digital adv budget is bound to increase especially with regard to social media, while for 65% of them, the search sector will be the next hot stuff. Also, 85% of the interviewees have claimed that  Amazon advertising-oriented options will impact their budgeting decisions for this year.

However, what we are really interested in is the fact that 42% of such professionals, despite the decreasing income deriving from advertising, if compared to 2017, claimed that BigG and social media patron Facebook will once again impact on their business trends. When I talk about a decrease, I don’t refer to the overall advertising expenditure which, as I’ve explained in the post entitled “Mobile Adv: 2018 it is bound to surpass TV”, is actually increasing, but only the fab two’s. According to the magazine, such duopoly, currently controlling one fourth of the overall American advertising market, is doomed and will progressively lose market share with the addition of new competitors. The forecast drop should amount in 56,8% of the overall digital investment in the United States in 2018, against 58,5% of last year. However, advertisers are afraid that, once again for this year, Google’s rule on the search market and  Facebook control over social media, will literally swallow their whole budget (Fear of the Duopoly Remains Strong for Advertisers – Facebook and Google are stoking anxieties)

In the meantime, forecast concerning Bezos’ creature talk about a relevant increase in its advertising revenues which are supposed to reach up to +63,5% and of Snapchat’s which should reach 81,7%. Impressive percentages, especially if read as standalone values, but which jointly represent only 4% of the overall digital advertising budget in the United States. Too little to fight such duopoly. Nevertheless, competitors have clearly conquered part of the market and are not willing to let go; on the contrary, they aim at consolidating their positions. Those who may be interested in planning their future moves concerning their advertising budget, it will make sense to keep monitoring the situation.

Which channels and media do you share your budget among? and why? Tweet @agostinellialdo

To find out more about the digital world, you may read my latest book entitled: “People Are Media” 

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